AUTO Visits NEWS » Items by By MANOHLA DARGIS

Movie Review | 'Theater of War': Mother Courage Gets Her Own Camp Follower

Posted: December 24th, 2008, 5:36am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

In his inspired, inspiring essayistic documentary “Theater of War,” the filmmaker John Walter jumps from art to history and politics and back again.

Movie Review: Killer Soup, and a Mouse to the Rescue

Posted: December 19th, 2008, 4:51am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Despereaux” is a pleasantly immersive, beautifully animated, occasionally sleepy tale.

Movie Review | 'Nothing but the Truth': Outed Agent and Reporter Go Toe to Toe

Posted: December 17th, 2008, 4:37am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

Despite about a journalist at a powerful newspaper who is jailed for refusing to name her source, “Nothing but the Truth” has nothing to do with you know what or who.

Movie Review | 'Twilight': The Love That Dare Not Bare Its Fangs

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 5:44am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

It’s love at first look instead of first bite in “Twilight,” a deeply sincere, outright goofy vampire romance for the hot-not-to-trot abstinence set.

Movie Review | 'Harvard Beats Yale 29-29': Back in 1968, When a Tie Was No Tie

Posted: November 19th, 2008, 5:20am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

Kevin Rafferty makes the case for remembrance and for the art of the story in his preposterously entertaining documentary “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.”

Permalink for 'NYT___Arts/2008/11/12/Movie_Review____Slumdog_Millionaire___Orphan%e2%80%99s_Lifeline_Out_of_Hell_Could_Be_a_Game_Show_in_Mumbai'

Movie Review | 'Slumdog Millionaire': Orphan’s Lifeline Out of Hell Could Be a Game Show in Mumbai

Posted: November 12th, 2008, 5:34am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

A gaudy, gorgeous rush of color, sound and motion, “Slumdog Millionaire” doesn’t travel through the lower depths, it giddily bounces from one horror to the next.

Movie Review | 'Let the Right One In': Pale Boy and Pale Vampire in a Still, Wintry Landscape

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 5:40am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Let the Right One In” takes the morbid unhappiness of its young characters seriously.

Movie Review | 'Synecdoche, New York': Dreamer, Live in the Here and Now

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 5:39am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

To say that Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” is one of the best films of the year is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now.

Movie Review | 'Zidane': Portrait of the Artist as a Global Soccer Star

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 4:26am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

You learn little by way of hard facts about the adored French soccer star and famous head-butter Zinédine Zidane in the formalist exercise that bears his name.

Permalink for 'NYT___Arts/2008/10/17/Movie_Review____W.___Oliver_Stone%e2%80%99s_Vision_Thing__Bush__the_Family'

Movie Review | 'W.': Oliver Stone’s Vision Thing: Bush, the Family

Posted: October 17th, 2008, 6:40am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“W.” does something most journalism and even documentaries can’t or won’t do: it reminds us what a long, strange trip it’s been to the Bush White House.

Movie Review | 'Filth and Wisdom': Stripping and Other Noble Pursuits

Posted: October 17th, 2008, 4:07am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

Pop go the dialectics in “Filth and Wisdom,” a tale of bumping and grinding your way to happiness from the hardest-working hard body in show business.

Permalink for 'NYT___Arts/2008/10/08/Movie_Review____RocknRolla___Guns_N%e2%80%99_Poses__Thugs__Drugs_and_Style_in_Shady_London'

Movie Review | 'RocknRolla': Guns N’ Poses: Thugs, Drugs and Style in Shady London

Posted: October 8th, 2008, 4:53am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

Guy Ritchie reshuffles a worn-out deck in “RocknRolla,” a return to the shady stylings that characterized his earlier flicks.

Movie Review | 'Virtual J F K.: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived': How One President Might Have Altered a War

Posted: September 17th, 2008, 4:47am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

The title of the documentary “Virtual J F K.: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived” pretty much says it all, though the movie itself says not nearly enough.

Movie Review | Tropic Thunder: War May Be Hell, but Hollywood Is Even Worse

Posted: August 13th, 2008, 3:08am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Tropic Thunder” is a flashy, nasty, on-and-off funny and assaultive sendup of the film industry.

Movie Review | 'Elegy': Extracurricular Lessons for Student and Teacher

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 2:06am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Elegy” is such a serious, oftentimes grave exploration of desire and the ways of aging that it’s a miracle the two central characters have as much sex as they do.

Movie Review | 'Step Brothers': Once More to the Well of Goofball Comedy

Posted: July 25th, 2008, 3:57am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

In “Step Brothers,” a middle-aged male arrested adolescent meets same.

Movie Review | 'The Order of Myths': A Mardi Gras Story in Black and White

Posted: July 25th, 2008, 3:57am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“The Order of Myths” is a wise and soberly affecting documentary about the separate but unequal Mardi Gras festivities that take place each year in Mobile, Ala.

Permalink for 'NYT___Arts/2008/07/25/Movie_Review____The_X_Files__I_Want_to_Believe___Who%e2%80%99s_Afraid_of_the_Darkly_Paranormal_'

Movie Review | 'The X-Files: I Want to Believe': Who’s Afraid of the Darkly Paranormal?

Posted: July 25th, 2008, 3:48am GMT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

Baggy, draggy, oddly timed and strangely off the mark, “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” is the generally bad-news follow-up to the show’s first feature-film incarnation.